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All posts for the month August, 2012

I am accustomed to hearing a wide variety of cat sounds from the several felines who consider part of my house their home. But there was something unique about what I heard as I woke up this morning.

“Eep, eep…scramble-scramble…eep eep!” I decided to investigate.

There is a small round wooden table that was originally a spool for electrical wire. It has a large hole in the center and a smaller round hole, about 3 inches in diameter, near its outer edge. The sound in question was coming from a kitten who had gotten her head stuck in that hole. She was trying to pull it out, or alternatively to go forward to pull her whole body through it. Neither was working.

This is never supposed to happen to a cat. Their whiskers are supposed to be an accurate gauge of the width of an opening through which their heads and bodies will fit. Presumably this is instinctive knowledge, or else it is taught by mother cats at an early age. This kitten forgot, and obviously regretted her error. Still, if her head fit going in, it should fit pulling out, but even with my assistance that didn’t seem to be the case. I decided that lubrication was needed– not lotion, because cats will lick off anything that gets on their fur. It should be edible. Margarine. I buttered the kitten’s head and the edge of the hole with it. The fit was still tight, but a few minutes of gentle pulling from above and pushing from below finally freed the feline. She looked relieved, grateful, and oily.

Her mother, who wasn’t sure of my intentions at first, meowed “Thanks”.